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Romanian Folklore and its Archaic

Heritage. A cultural and Linguistic


Comparative Study Ana R. Chelariu
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Romanian Folklore and
its Archaic Heritage
A Cultural and Linguistic Comparative Study

Ana R. Chelariu
Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage
Ana R. Chelariu

Romanian Folklore
and its Archaic
Heritage
A cultural and Linguistic
Comparative Study
Ana R. Chelariu
Emerson, NJ, USA

ISBN 978-3-031-04050-4    ISBN 978-3-031-04051-1 (eBook)


https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
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The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
“Aion is a child at play, playing draughts; the kingship is a child’s.”
—Heraclitus, Fr. 52
To my mother
Acknowledgements

The completion of my work took many years of research and a lot of


effort to overcome the language barrier, and which could not have been
realised without the encouragement and support of family, friends and
distinguished professors, colleagues from the International Association of
Comparative Mythology, the Institute of Archaeonythology, American
Romanian Academy, and Romanian Universities. I will always cherrish
the memory of Professor Dean Miller, a true friend of Romanian studies,
and Professor Nick Allen, whose Hindu studies were generously made
available to me.
Special thanks and gratitude are due to Professor John Colarusso from
MacMaster University, for his encouragement and guidance over per-
sonal correspondence.
I owe a great deal to Professor Allen Ahsby for helping me in my strug-
gle with the English language.
Professor Stefan Stoenescu’s advise for the Romanian version of this
work is much appreciated. Professor Adrian Poruciuc’s interests in Indo-­
European linguistics and Romanian folklore encouraged me in the begin-
ning, and many thanks to Professor Mircea Diaconu from Stefan Cel
Mare University, Suceava, Romania for his interest and reviewings of my
articles.
Appreciation goes to Professor Joshua James Pennington from the
Peerwith, for his help in editing and language corrections.
ix
x Acknowledgements

The many Romanian friends from diaspora, among whom renown


folklorist Coca Eretescu, the poet and literary critic Mirela Roznoveanu,
and the linguist Mihai Vinereanu, deserve special thanks.
Last but not least, this work could not have been completed without
the patience and understanding of my talented husband Serban, painter
and poet in his own right, and my beautiful exceptional daughter, Andrea,
my first and most understanding editor; and her wonderful family, Scott
and my three grandkids, Sean, Claire and Thea, always the joys of my life,
who I hope one day may be able to read this work.
Contents

Part I Getae-Dacians History and Religion in Ancient


Sources   1

1 I ntroduction  3

2 Brief
 Overview of Recent Theories on the
Indo-Europeans’ Homeland  9

3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 17

4 Some Recent Genetic and Archaeological Conclusions 25

5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 29

Part II Comparative Method: Myth, Fairy Tale, Folk Tale  39

6 The Development of the Comparative Method 41

7 The Concept of Myth 45

xi
xii Contents

8 Myth Between Symbol and Metaphor 53

9 M
 yth and Fairy Tales 63

10 Mythic Time Versus Fairy Tale Time 69

Part III Traits of Indo-European Mythic Motifs in


Romanian Folk Stories  73

11 The Mythic Motif of Man’s Creation 75

12 C
 osmogony: Fârtat and Nefârtat, the Romanian Twins
among the Indo-­European Divine Twins 83

13 God
 ‘Dumnezeu’ and the Creation of Earth, Sky,
Mountains in Romanian Beliefs 97

14 Th
 e Romanian Goddess Ileana Simziana: The Sun and
the Moon Marriage109

15 The
 Sun and a Mortal Girl Marriage: The Romanian
Song of Cicoarea ‘The Chicory’121

16 The
 ‘Deer Hunt’ Motif in the Romanian Wedding
Ceremony125

17 R
 omanian Feminine Spirits iele, rusalii, șoimane141

18 Th
 e Romanian Păcală among the Indo-­European
Tricksters145

19 Th
 e Hero Slaying the Dragon in the Romanian Song
Iovan Iorgovan153
Contents xiii

20 Youth
 Rivalry Fights: From Nart Sagas to the Romanian
Song Mioriţa169

21 Metamorphoses in Myth and Fairy Tales181

22 Metamorphoses in Youth Initiation Rites191

23 The
 Romanian Folk Story “The Enchanted Pig”: The
Motif ‘Beauty and the Beast’199

24 Indo-European
 Social Structures and Youth Initiation
Rites in Romanian Folk Customs205

25 F
 ather Christmas: Romanian Moş Crăciun—A Solar Myth215

26 C
 onclusions229

Part IV Daco-Romanian Language Position Among the


Indo-European Languages 235

27 Th
 e Daco-Romanian Cultural Vocabulary237

A
 ppendix257

B
 ibliography389

I ndex411
About the Author

Ana R. Chelariu was born in Bucharest, Romania, on November 19,


1946. Early on, while studying Romanian language and literature at the
University of Bucharest, she began her career writing original fairy tales
for the Radio-TV Romania, and was awarded First Prize for an original
fairy tale, transmitted on the radio broadcasting for children “Inşir-te
mărgăritar.” The interest in fairy tales, particularly the relationship
between myth and fairy tales, was the subject of her Master of Arts gradu-
ation thesis at the University of Bucharest, entitled Nemesis in the folktale
type A-Th 325, the Wizard and his Apprentice.
She has published articles, book reviews, and stories for children in
magazines such as Neue Literatur and Cutezătorii; she worked as a free-
lance editorial advisor for the publishing house ‘Cartea Românească’.
In 1978, she published her first book, a collection of original fairy tales
The Secret of Happiness, Ion Creangă Publishing House, Bucharest.
In January 1979, Ana immigrated to the United States. She continued
her studies, graduating in 1981 from Rutgers University, with a Master in
Library Science. While working as the director of a public library in
Northern Jersey, she continued her studies in mythology, folklore, and
language history.
As a member of the Society of Romanian Studies, she presents her
research studies on the relation between myth and folktale at various

xv
xvi About the Author

conferences organized by the Society, studies published in English in the


Romanian Civilization magazine.
In 2001, she published together with the Romanian writer Nina
Ceranu Libertăţile bufniţei [The Owl Freedoms], Ana@West and Nina@
East, a collection of e-mail correspondence between two writers who
never met in person. The book was reviewed in a few newspapers: Ildico
Achimescu, National Premiere, in Timişoara was published the first episto-
lary novel on the Internet; Ion Arieşanu: Looking through books; Alex.
Stefănescu: Chat on the Internet.
In 2003, Ana Chelariu published in Romanian Metafora metaforei;
studiu de mitologie comparată (The Metaphor of the Metaphor, a Study of
Comparative Mythology), Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing
House, book presented at the National Book Fair, Bucharest,
November 2003.
The book was also presented at the ‘Mihai Eminescu’ literary club,
New York City, January, 2004, featured in the magazine Lumină Lină,
and at the Romanian Cultural Institute, New York City, February 2004.
The study was reviewed by Mircea A. Diaconu: “Un teritoriu fascinant şi
recuperat, mitologia comparată [A Fascinating and Retrieved Territory,
Comparative Mythology]”, [Dacia Literară, XV, nr. 55, 4/2004, Iaşi],
Timotei Ursu “Tot despre Crăciun [About Christmas Again]”, in Lumea
Liberă [Free World], New York City, Nr. 798, 22 January, 2004; on line
http://www.romanianvip.com/2009/03/metafora-­metaforei-­ana-­radu/
“Metafora metaforei” de Ana Radu Chelariu, 26 March 2009—
Eugen Evu.
The same year, 2003, she published at the Eubeea Publishing House,
Timişoara, a bilingual children’s story, Romanian-English, Nea Nae
mănâncă luna/Master Nick Eats the Moon.
She published in Balkanistica, vol. 16, 2003 (South East European
Studies Association, University of Mississippi), a book review of The
3000-Year-Old Hat: New Connections with Old Europe: the Thraco-­
Phrygian World, by Irina and Nicolas Florov, Vancouver, 2001.
Ana continues to participate in conferences and publish articles on
various topics, particularly on Romanian mythology in relation with
Indo-European language and culture in the Journal of American Romanian
About the Author xvii

Academy, the magazine Origini [Roots], and the Internet publication of


the Romanian language, Conexiuni.
In 2013, she published ‘The Two Pennies Pouch’; a Romanian folktale,
based on ‘Punguța cu doi bani’, by Ion Creangă, Amazon.com., with illus-
trations by Serban Chelariu.
She participates annually with communications at the conferences
organized by the International Association of Comparative Mythology,
such as:
The Role of Metamorphosis in the Initiation Rites: the Flight of
Transformation from Myth to Romanian Folktales, Strasbourg, 2011.
Metaphors and the Mythical Language—Examples from Romanian
Mythology, Tubingen, 2013.
She published Metamorphosis amid Myths, Initiation Rites and
Romanian Folk Tales in Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée/New Comparative
Mythology, Lingva, nr, 3, p. 49, 2016–2017.
She publishes reviews of books for The Journal of Folklore Research
Reviews; Indiana University.
She is a member of the American Romanian Academy, the Society of
Romanian Studies, the South-East European Studies, International
Association of Comparative Mythology, The Institute of
Arhcaeomythology, New Jersey Library Association, and American
Library Association.
Ana lives with her family in New Jersey, United States of America.
Abbreviations

adj. adjective
adv. adverb
Alb Albanian
arch archaic
Arm Armenian
ARom Aromanian
Bret Breton, Celtic
Bulg Bulgarian
Bur Burushaski
Corn Cornish, Celtic
Czech Czech
DEX.RO Dicționarul Explicativ al Limbii Române online
DRom Daco-Romanian
Dutch modern Dutch
f. feminine
Gaul Gaulish
Goth Gothic
Grk Greek
Hit Hitite
Ice Icelandic
IEW Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch
Illyr Illyrian
inf. infinitive

xix
xx Abbreviations

Iran Iranian
IstrRom Istro-Romanian
JIES Journal of Indo-European Studies
Lat Latin
Latv Latvian
Lig Ligurian
Lith Lithuanian
Luv Luvian
m. masculine
MA Mallory & Adams
Maced Macedonian
MDutch West Law Germanic
ME Middle English
MglRom Megleno-Romanian
MHG Middle High German
MPers Middle Persi
n. noun
NE modern English
NHG New Hogh German
NIce New Icelandic
Norw Norwegian
NPres New Persian
NWels New Welsh
OCimmr Old Cimmerian
OCS Old Church Slavonic
OE Old English
OIce Old Icelandic
OInd Old Indian
OIr Old Irish
OIran Old Iranian
OLat Old Latin
ON Old Norse
OPers Old Persian
OPrus Old Prussian
ORus Old Russian
Osc Oscan
Oss Ossetic
Phryg Phrygian
Abbreviations xxi

PIE Proto-Indo-European
Pk Pokorny
pl. plural
PN personal name
Pol Polish
PSl Proto Slav
RN river name
Rus Russian
Serb Serbian
sg. singular
Skt Sanskrit
Slovk Slovakian
Slovn Slovenian
Thrac Thracian
Toch A B Tocharian A and B
Trk Turkish
Ukr Ukrainian
Umb Umbrian
v. verb
Part I
Getae-Dacians History and Religion
in Ancient Sources
1
Introduction

By the end of the first millennium BCE, the Carpathian Mountains and
the surrounding hills were populated with people living out of the deep
vast forests and fertile valleys, along fast-moving springs, raising their
families and tending their livestock, all the while transmitting their cul-
tural heritage from one generation to another. The little that we know
about this large group comes mostly from Greek sources, beginning with
Herodotus (Histories 4. 93–96), who groups these people named Getae
into the large tribes of Thracians, sharing the same language, customs,
and religious beliefs (ibid.), all part of the Indo-European group, In his
short depiction, the Greek historian describes them as “the most manly
and law-abiding of the Thracian tribes”, recounting one of the rituals that
gives us a glimpse into the beliefs these people held: According to his
account, every five years one man was selected from their community to
serve as a messenger to god. The messenger would be held by his arms
and legs and swung in the air before being launched over three spikes. If
he was impaled on the spikes and succumbed to his wounds, it was inter-
preted that their god was showing them favor; but if he did not die that
meant the man was wicked, and they had to continue until they appeased
their god with a proper sacrifice, a better man. When thunder and light-
ning occurred, Getae would aim their arrows toward the clouds,

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3


A. R. Chelariu, Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_1
4 A. R. Chelariu

threatening the sky with angry cries. Their supreme god was Zalmoxis, (also
spelt Salmoxis), a Getae who, it is said, was a slave of the Greek Pythagoras,
as Herodotus writes: §1.1.1: 4.94: (1) “I understand from the Greeks who
live beside the Hellespont and Pontus, that this Salmoxis was a man who
was once a slave in Samos, his master being Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus.”
As the historian continues, after being freed and gaining great wealth,
‘Salmoxis’ returned to his country and began teaching the Pythagorean
doctrine of immortality. He built a hall in which people would gather and
listen to his teachings (3) “that neither he nor his guests nor any of their
descendants would ever die, but that they would go to a place where they
would live forever and have all good things” (ibid.). While he was teaching,
he (Zalmoxis) had built an underground chamber where he vanished and
lived for three years (4). The Thracians mourned him for dead, but (5) “in
the fourth year he appeared to the Thracians, and thus they came to believe
what ‘Salmoxis’ had told them” (ibid.). Getae believed in immortality, and
after death they go to Zalmoxis, §1.1.3: 4.96. “who is called also Gebeleizis
by some among them” (ibid.). The Romanian historian Vasile Pârvan in his
extensive work Getica opposes the Greek historians who attributed human
condition to Zalmoxis, in the end agreeing with Herodotus on the Getae’s
beliefs in a god named Zalmoxis. (Pârvan 1982: p. 92)
Centuries later, Strabo (Geography 7. 3. 12) called the tribes living in
the western parts of the Carpathians toward German territories “daoi,
dakoi”, which directs the search to the PIE [Pokorny (1959)
Indogermanisches etymologiscches worterbuch (IEW) 235] *dhau- ‘to press,
squeeze, strangle’ > DRom n. Daci collective ethnonym tribe name, Lat
Dāci; Phryg δάος; other DRom developments dulău n.m. ‘big aggressive
dog, shepherd dog’; dolcă n. f. ‘bitch’, with cognates, as per Pokorny:
“Phryg δάος … ὑπο Υρυγων λύκος Hes. (therefrom the people’s name
Δᾶοι, Dāci), Lyd Καν-δαύλης (κυν-άγχης ‘Indian Hemp, dogbane,
plant poisonous to dogs’), compare Καν-δάων, name of Thrac god of
war, Illyr PN Can-davia; dhaunos ‘wolf ’ as ‘shrike’; Lat Faunus; Grk
θαῦνον θηρίον (Hesykhios); Illyr Daunus therefrom Δαύνιοι, inhabit-
ant of Daunia; compare Thrac Δαύνιον τεῖχος); Gk. Zεὺς Θαύλιος, that
is, ‘shrike’; with ablaut Grk θώς, θω(F)ός ‘jackal’, maybe Alb dac ‘cat’;
Phryg. δάος; Goth af-dauiÞs ‘rended, mangled, afflicted’; OCS davljǫ,
daviti ‘embroider, choke, strangle’, Russ davítь ‘pressure, press, choke,
crush’, dávka ‘crush’”. The Bulgarian linguist V. Georgiev (1960, p. 48)
1 Introduction 5

finds a Dacian plant name δαχινα (Diosc. 4, 16, nv [W. 2, 183]) λυχου
χαρδια ‘wolf heart’ IE *dhău-k-ino adj ‘of wolf ’ < *dhăwo-s ‘wolf ’ > tribe’s
name Δαχοι, IE. *dh ~u-ko—‘wolf ’; older name Δαοι; περσον∋σ ναμε
Dăvos, Daus < IE *dhăwo-s ‘wolf ’ > town Δαουσ-δαυα in Moesia
Inferior, and their close relatives who occupied the eastern parts toward
the Pontic region the “Getae”.
Strabo states that Zamolxis (sic!) preached to his countrymen about
immortality and vegetarianism, based on Pythagorean ideas (Geography
7. 3–5). Zalmoxis’ teachings on immortality are confirmed by Plato
(Charmides 156d–e), who also mentions the highly respected medical
teachings of the prophet.
The Getae-Dacian religious beliefs in a supreme deity, the god,
Zalmoxis in some documents, or Zamolxis in others, must have impressed
the Greeks with his story and preaching, as it is seen in their writings. The
god’s name is subject of endless controversies mainly due to the different
ways in which it was transcribed in many Greek works, varying from
Zalmoxis to Samolxis, to Zamolxis. The Romanian researcher, Popa-­
Lisseanu (2007) published translations of Roman and Greek documents
pertaining to the Dacian history, including antique references to the
Dacian god Zamolxis. From his work I extract the following chronologi-
cal list of writers using one or the other of these forms: in Herodotus,
Histories, in fifth century BCE, we find Zalmoxis and Salmoxis (see
above); Porphyry (1920), Life of Pythagoras, third century BCE uses
Zamolxis: “14. Pythagoras had another youthful disciple from Thrace.
Zamolxis was he named because he was born wrapped in a bear’s skin, in
Thracian called Zalmus.” Even though Porphyrios uses the god’s name as
Zamolxis he attempts the first etymology of this name, in a Thracian
form zalmus meaning ‘bear’s skin’. Other ancient writers using the form
Zalmoxis are Diodorus Siculus, first century BCE, Apuleius, second cen-
tury CE, and Jordanes in the sixth century CE.
Among those using the form Zamolxis are: Poseidonios, first century
BCE, a native to Apamea, Syria; Strabo, 64 or 63 BCE–24 CE, geogra-
pher and historian who lived in Asia Minor; Lucian of Samosata, second
century CE. Starting with the third century CE, the form Zamolxis is
more commonly used by authors such as Diogenes Laertios, third century
AD, or the Emperor Julian the Apostate, fourth century CE. Addressing
6 A. R. Chelariu

the stem zamol M. Eliade (1972: 45) brings to attention Matthäus


Prätorius who in his Orbis Gothicus (1688) relates the god’s name with the
notion of zamol ‘earth’, an idea reiterated by Cless (1852) who compares
it with the name of the Lithuanian chthonic god Zameluks, an etymology
later discussed by the Romanian linguist Ioan I. Russu (1967: 128).
Evidently, the use of the two forms of the Getae-Dacian god’s name
generated two pathways of etymological explanations, one starting from
the Thracian form zalmo ‘bear skin, cover, hide’, hence, Zalmoxis, ety-
mology that could imply a relation to the German berserkers, even
though there is no description of such in Herodotus or the other histori-
ans. The Zalmoxis form is considered correct by the majority of linguists
accepting Herodotus as the most ancient source, and based on Thracian
form zalmon and zelmis ‘hide’, a hypothesis that receives credibility on
the account of a Gaete king, Zalmodegikos. But the Thracian language
offers yet another form zamol ‘earth’, leading to the god’s underground
sojourn, both forms having similar semantic connotations, the hiding
and the underground, which may help clarify the coexistence of both
forms. The appellative Gebeleizis or Beleizis, was linked to the same root,
*ǵhem-el- ‘earth’, as presumed base for Zamolxis. The PIE root *ĝhem-el
(*dhǵhom-) for ‘earth’ (IEW 414–416) *ĝhðem-, ĝhðom-, gen. ĝh(ð)m-és
‘earth’ has cognates in Skt kşam, Av za, zam, zme, Grk khthōn, Lat
humus, Lith žēmė, Old Slvic zemlja, Alb dhe, Hit tēkan, Toch A tkam,
forms that send us to the Earth Goddess, found in the Thracian mythol-
ogy as Σεμελη ‘Mother of Earth’ (West, 2007, p. 175), and Semele, διωσ
ξεμελω, mother of Dionysos, in Lithuanian Zemyna ‘Earth Goddess’,
Greek Ξαμ-αι, Ξαμ-υνη, Demeter’s name, and possibly with the Cretan
δηαί, Ionic ζηαί meaning ‘barley’. These forms lead us to relate the well-­
established divinity of the Earth with the Dacian male deity Zamolxis,
the god who disappeared (or hid) underground for a number of years, a
connection that could be structural, etymological, or conjectural, due to
an association made by the Greek speakers familiar with Thracian and
Phrygian: ζεμελω ‘earth’.
Around the first century BCE, the Dacian-Getae tribes unified and
formed a powerful state, becoming a threat to the Roman provinces in
the Balkans. According to Strabo (7.3.11, 12), “Boerebistas”, king of the
Getae-Dacian tribes from 82/61 BCE to 45/44 BCE, was the first ruler
1 Introduction 7

to unify their tribes under a state that stretched from the north of the
Carpathians to the Haemus Mountains in the west, from the mountain-
side of the Hercynian Forest to the Black Sea and the Tyregetae region.
After Boerebista’s death the state disintegrated into smaller states, approx-
imately on the same geographic territory as modern-day Romania,
including: Transylvania, Moldova, Maramureș, Banat, Oltenia, and
Muntenia. Following his predecessor, Decebalus unified these tribes yet
again under the Dacian kingdom with its capital at Sarmizegetusa Regia.
Their constant raids south of the Danube River gave the Roman Empire
enough reason to start military campaigns against them. After two bloody
wars, by the year 106 CE the emperor Trajan conquered Dacia, and the
colonization and Romanization process began (Pârvan 1972).
Despite thousands of years of turbulent history in this region, the peo-
ple of Romania withstood the test of times, continuing their traditions
and creating a rich oral culture. Currently, the folkloric materials col-
lected mostly in the nineteenth century are regarded by more and more
researchers as hiding archaic patterns, making a case for the Romanian
songs and stories to be considered as potential sources of information in
searching mythical motifs. Romanian folklore, as well as the folklore of
other European countries, with careful investigation, can be a valuable
resource for shedding new light on the study of European and ultimately
Indo-European mythology. This work is an attempt to identify mythic
traits that endured from the archaic times emerging into the Romanian
oral tradition.

References
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Religions and Folklore of Dacia and Eastern Europe. University of Chicago Press.
Georgiev, V. I. (1960). Raporturile dintre limbile dacă, tracă şi frigiană. Studii
clasice II, Societatea de studii clasice RPR, p. 39.
Herodotus. (1920). Histories (A. D. Godley, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
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Pârvan, V. ([1937] 1972). Dacia. Civilizaţiile străvechi din regiunile carpato-­


danubiene (5th ed.). Editura Stiințifică.
Platon. (1975). Opere. Ediția a II-a; ediție îngrijită de Petre Creția și Constantic
Noica. Editura științifică și enciclopedică.
Pokorny, J. (1959). Indogermanisches etymologiscches worterbuch. A. Francke Verlag.
Popa-Lisseanu, G. (2007). Dacia în autorii clasici; I Autorii latini clasici și post-
clasici; II Autorii greci și bizantini. Vestala.
Porphyry. (1920). Life of Pythagoras (English translation, K. S. Guthrie, Trans.).
https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/porphyry_life_of_pythagoras_02_
text.htm
Russu, I. I. (1967). Limba traco-dacilor. Bucharest Ştiinti̧ficǎ și enciclopedică.
Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three vol-
umes, ed. H. C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A (London 1903). http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0239
West, M. L. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press.
2
Brief Overview of Recent Theories
on the Indo-Europeans’ Homeland

The Indo-Europeans’ ‘homeland’ and the moment of their dispersal


throughout Europe is a much-debated subject. In recent decades, the
most prominent researchers on this topic modified their view on the
arrival of the Indo-Europeans to Europe from a violent invasion to a
peaceful intrusion. According to the invasion theory, postulated by
Marija Gimbutas (1982, p. 238), the Indo-Europeans disrupted the
lower Danubian long-standing cultures, Hamangia, Gumelnița Karanovo,
Vinča, Tisa, and on the northeast the Cucuteni-Tripolye cultures, for
which she established the term ‘Old Europe’. The populations flourishing
for millennia in these regions prior to the arrival of the Indo-Europeans,
practiced on a limited scale agriculture and herding, advanced ceramic
techniques, and worshipped the Great Goddess. The Indo-European
invaders appeared as a warrior-like nomadic population, essentially patri-
archal, structured in social classes, who worshipped the sky and the sun.
The central position occupied by the feminine deity in the ‘so-called’ Old
Europe culture led to mingling between the worshippers of the goddess
and the newcomers’ religious beliefs, that could explain the confusion
often associated with the feminine deities’ functions in the Greek pan-
theon. For example, the Greek Demeter, as her name stands, is the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 9


A. R. Chelariu, Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_2
10 A. R. Chelariu

‘Mother Earth’, a representation of the Old Europe goddesses displaying


a distinct relation with the Olympians.
The violent invasion theory was refuted by Colin Renfrew (1987) who
advanced the hypothesis that the Indo-Europeans came around 6500 BCE
from Anatolia through Greece, as the first farmers that colonized the
middle and lower Danube valleys. According to the author, their arrival
was not a warlike intrusion, but took place rather by demic diffusion, a
gradual penetration by which the ‘conquering’ process was realized
through assimilation.
James Mallory argues that in the millennia following 4500–4000 BCE,
there was a sizeable influx of people from the Pontic region into Europe, laying
“the foundation for the Indo-European languages throughout Southeastern
Europe” (Mallory, 1989/1996, p. 234). Archaeological evidence of the new-
comers in the Romanian area includes the presence of objects typical for the
Pontic Caspian region such as scepters shaped as horseheads found in
Casimcea, Sălcuța, Fedeleseni, and other sites (Mallory, ibid.).
The place of the Indo-European dispersal is the subject of yet another
important study offered by David Anthony (2007). His extensive archae-
ological research concludes that the homeland of the Proto-Indo-­
Europeans was north of the Black Sea in the Pontic-Caspian steppes,
reinforcing the previous theories of Gimbutas and Mallory. Analyzing the
archaeological data in conjunction with the linguistic reconstructions,
Anthony reaches the conclusion that the penetration of the Proto-Indo-­
European culture and the fall of the Southeast European settlements,
resulted most likely from a combination of several factors: cultural and
economic exchanges, warlike incursions on horseback, and climate con-
ditions resulting in agricultural failure (Anthony, 2007, p. 230). Between
6500 and 5500 BCE, farmers and herders of a non-Indo-European-­
speaking group arrived in Europe from Anatolia through Greece and
Macedonia, migrating up north by the Danube Valley. Several new Old
European Neolithic languages may have emerged from a Thessalian par-
ent, a non-Indo-European language that curiously might have preserved
in the Proto-Indo-European the term for bull, *tawro-s ‘bull’, considered
by many linguists borrowed from an Afro-Asiatic super-family that gen-
erated both Egyptian and Semitic in the Near East (Anthony, 2007,
2 Brief Overview of Recent Theories on the Indo-Europeans’… 11

p. 147). According to him, the farmers from Anatolia did not spread into
Europe the Proto-Indo-European language:

PIE must be dated not to the Mesolithic but after the beginning of the
Neolithic era, so after 6500 BCE in Europe, because many Indo-European
(IE) cognate word roots securely assigned to PIE (Mallory & Adams, 2006:
139–172) had meanings related to Neolithic economies (cow, bull, calf,
ewe, ram, lamb, wool, milk products, ard/plow, domesticated grain). The
speakers of the most archaic recoverable form of PIE, preserved in the
Anatolian IE languages, were already familiar with agriculture and domes-
ticated animals—and the pre-Neolithic WHG were not. (Anthony &
Brown, 2017)

At about 5800–5700 BCE the farmers of the Criș culture, developed


along the Criș river on the Carpathian Mountains by farmers from
Anatolia, migrated to the east of the Carpathian Mountains into the Bug-­
Dnister areas, coming in contact with its neighbors, the Pontic-Caspian
population of foragers and hunters. They brought with them domesti-
cated sheep and cattle, probably the source of the first domesticated cattle
in the North Pontic region,. They cultivated barley, millet, peas, a variety
of wheat (emmer, einkorn, spelt, barley, millet), peas that were not native
to southeastern Europe, and plum orchards, etc., and yet the European
cultures lacked the vocabulary for ‘seed, sowing, fields, crops’ (Anthony,
2007, p. 138–143). A note should be made here on the difficulty lin-
guists have to reconstruct a PIE root for ‘pea’ (Mallory & Adams, 1997,
2006, p. 416) in spite of its confirmed presence on the continent for
thousands of years. Relevant here is the unexplained Albanian modhullë
and Romanian mazăre, both meaning ‘pea’, to which we have to add the
Dacian form found in Dioscorides’ list of plants mozula, mizela ‘the plant
thyme’, showing phonetic similarity, but semantic difference.
Around 5800–5500 BCE, the archaeological data show that the hunt-
ers and gatherers on the Bug-Dniester valley selectively and on a limited
scale adopted the Criş farmers-herders influence, consisting of small plots
of grain, cattle, and pigs. From 5200 BCE, the lower Danube valley set-
tlements and the Criş culture began to enjoy centuries of peace and pros-
perity, the farming hamlets turned into large settlements and larger
12 A. R. Chelariu

towns, with bigger, sturdier houses, some two-storied, painted in specific


patterns. Remarkably, at some sites, villages continued on the same spot
for many generations, showing signs of a very sedentary type of popula-
tion. The ceramic decorations follow similar patterns, and the numerous
female figurines confirm that the main religious beliefs centered on the
Great Goddess. Beginning with 5200–5000 BCE, the Pontic-Caspian
steppe societies became attracted to the Old European copper trade and
the beautifully decorated ceramics of the Cucuteni-­Tripolye cultures
from the northeast Carpathian Mountains.
After a thousand years of prosperous existence, by 4200 BCE the Old
Europe cultures reached their peak. Unfortunately, the lower Danube
valley civilization was hit by a period of terrible winters (Anthony, 2007,
p. 227), which resulted in burned and abandoned settlements. From
4200 to 3800 BCE the shift in climate, with a period of 140–150 years
of terrible winter colds, led to the end of farming activities, and of Old
Europe cultures. This hardship was exacerbated further by the incursions
of the steppe immigrants, a mobile force on horseback looking for Balkan
copper and perhaps forceful accumulation of herds. Some of the inhabit-
ants from the lower Danube valley retreated northwest into the
Transylvanian territory, where they settled and developed other cultural
complexes. Following centuries of very harsh winters and warlike inter-
ventions, by 3700 BCE the milder climate returned to the lower Danube
valley, encouraging the further penetration of steppe settlers. The agricul-
tural type of economy was replaced by the adoption of an Indo-European
pastoral type of economy. Yet, the traditions of Old Europe continued for
a longer period of time in the western part of Romania, in Transylvania
and western Bulgaria, while the northeast Cucuteni-Tripolye cultures
maintained economic and presumably social relations with their steppe
neighbors. Beginning sometime before 4000 BCE, the steppe population
adopted more of the farmers and herders way of life and economy, creat-
ing the conditions for the start of what is accepted as Proto-Indo-­
European proper: “The heart of the Proto-Indo-European period probably
fell between 4000 and 3000 BCE, with an early phase that might go back
to 4500 BCE and a late phase that ended by 2500 BCE.” (Anthony,
2007, p. 99) In accord with Gimbutas and Mallory, Anthony (2007,
p. 58) concludes that linguistic reconstruction and archaeological
2 Brief Overview of Recent Theories on the Indo-Europeans’… 13

discoveries lead to the probability that Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was


the language spoken in the Pontic-Caspian steppes between 4500 and
2500 BCE:

By 2500 BCE the language that has been reconstructed as Proto-Indo-­


European had evolved into some thing else or, more accurately, into a vari-
ety of things, late dialects such as Pre-Greek and Pre-Indo-Iranian that
continued to diverge in different ways in different places. The Indo-­
European languages that evolved after 2500 BCE did not develop from
Proto-Indo-European but from a set of intermediate Indo-European lan-
guages that preserved and passed along aspects of the mother tongue.

According to this model, the PIE language was dead by 2500 BCE.
Moreover, Anthony presents a scenario in which the diffusion of the
Proto-Indo-European language that resulted into the formation of the
Indo-European dialects, occurred in the following sequence (Anthony,
2007, p. 305): the dispersal of Yamnaya horizon began with Afanasievo
culture spreading toward the east around 3700–3500 BCE with Pre-­
Tocharian, followed at about 3300 BCE by the diffusion across the
Pontic-Caspian region. The large migration from Western Yamnaya to
Danube valley and Carpathian basin took place from 3100 to 3000 BCE
during the Early Bronze Age, presumably with the Pre-Italic and Pre-­
Celtic dialects. Around 2800–2600 BCE, the Yamnaya horizon pene-
trated the Corded Ware cultures northwest of the Pontic region, giving
leeway to Germanic and Balto-Slavic dialects. The last diffusion took
place around 2200–2000 BCE when the late Yamnaya-Poltavka cultures
went east, separating into what are known as the Indo-Iranian speakers.
The core of economic exchanges between the steppe tribes and the
Anatolian settlers in the southeast and eastern part of Romania was mate-
rial culture in nature, including: pottery, copperware, cattle, and textiles.
Anthony argues that the Indo-European infiltration in Europe was suc-
cessful, aside from violence, due to the employment of a specific system
of contractual patron–client relations and guest–host agreements enforced
by lavish public rituals that impressed their neighbors and led to building
of social and economic bonds. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European
vocabulary hints at the importance of the oath-bound rituals for their
14 A. R. Chelariu

relations with gods, other members of the tribe, and even with people
from different ethnic groups, or other outsiders. Such rituals reflect
archaic European traditional cultures, and are recognized in a well-­
documented Romanian custom called judecata la hotare ‘the judgment at
the border’ (Vulcǎnescu, 1972, p. 67), which took place under an old
sacred oak, known in the Indo-European tradition as a sacred tree.
F. Kortlandt in his recent work (Kortlandt, 2018) proposes several
points that highlight the importance of the areas populated by the
Romanians’ ancestors:

When considering the way the Indo-Europeans took to the west, it is


important to realize that mountains, forests and marshlands were prohibi-
tive impediments. Moreover, people need fresh water, all the more so when
traveling with horses. The natural way from the Russian steppe to the west
is therefore along the northern bank of the river Danube. This leads to the
hypothesis that the western Indo-Europeans represent successive waves of
migration along the Danube and its tributaries. The Celts evidently fol-
lowed the Danube all the way into southern Germany. The ancestors of the
Italic tribes, including the Veneti, may have followed river Sava towards
northern Italy. The ancestors of Germanic speakers apparently moved into
Moravia and Bohemia and followed the Elbe into Saxony.

The same route was followed, as Kortlandt argues, by “the ancestors of


speakers of Balkan languages,” who crossed the lower Danube toward the
south. This scenario is in agreement with the generally accepted view of
“the earliest relations between these branches of Indo-European (cf.
Holzer 1989: 165 on Temematic)” (ibid., p. 327).
These researchers’ important contribution regarding the early contacts
of the lower Danube valley and east Carpathian civilizations with the
Indo-European migrants, whether associated with violence or by com-
mercial contracts, shines a bright light on the Romanian culture.
2 Brief Overview of Recent Theories on the Indo-Europeans’… 15

References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The Horse the Wheel and the Language. Oxford and
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Anthony, D. W., & Brown, D. R. (2017). Molecular Archaeology and Indo-­
European Linguistics: Impressions from New Data. https://www.academia.
edu/32927784/Molecular_archaeology_and_Indo_European_linguistics_
Impressions_from_new_data
Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos. (1934). Greek Herbal of Dioscorides
(J. Goodyer & R. T. Gunther, Eds.). (pdf ). Oxford University Press.
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult
Images. University of California Press.
Kortlandt, F. (2018). The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages # 322. www.
academia.edu
Mallory, J. P. (1989/1996). In Search of the Indo-Europeans, Language, Archaeology
and Myth. London: Thame and Hudson Ltd.
Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (Eds.). (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European
Culture. London and Chicago. Fitzroy Dearborn.
Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-­
European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vulcǎnescu, R. (1972). Coloana Ceriului. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române.
3
Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European
Homeland?

In the article Indo-European Expansion Cycles Axel Kristinsson (2012)


offers yet another hypothesis on the intensely disputed problem of the
Indo-European (IE) homeland, suggesting that the most remarkable pre-
historic culture, the Cucuteni-Tripolye (CT) culture, may very well be an
Indo-European creation:

…the evidence for material culture seems to fit best with a classic sedentary
farming culture like the CT culture, rather than a semi-nomadic culture we
would expect on the steppe although the evidence cannot be claimed to be
conclusive. (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 389)

The CT culture appears by the middle of sixth millennium BCE at the


foothills of the East Carpathian Mountains in Romania spreading east-
ward through Bessarabia toward the Dnieper and northward reaching the
area near Kiev. This culture presupposes a large population benefiting
from favorable conditions for developing primitive agriculture, which
flourished in apparent peaceful conditions for two millennia. Kristinsson’s
argument for locating the IE homeland in the CT region is based exactly
on the fact that Cucuteni represents the ideal geographic position for IE

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 17


A. R. Chelariu, Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_3
18 A. R. Chelariu

cultural development: It is situated at the junction between the forest and


the steppe areas, thus satisfying the IE main linguistic requirements.
In Kristinsson’s opinion, the large spread of the Indo-Europeans should
be regarded not as a problem but rather as evidence of a migration phe-
nomenon that started probably at the beginning of the fourth millen-
nium BCE (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 388). As a macro-historian, the author
had studied the cyclic expansions of many societies, reaching conclusions
that he considers applicable to the IE expansion. Thus, careful examina-
tion of massive movement of populations from the history of Europe
could offer a better solution for solving the IE spread. He gives examples
of the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and Vikings migrations throughout the
history of Europe, not to mention the populating of the Americas.
The author argues that large movements function on a common mech-
anism that works inside these cycles. According to Kristinsson, there are
two varieties of expansions capable of working separately or together: The
simplest model of expansion is by colonizing, occupying new lands for
agriculture needed to sustain the growth of families. In this kind of
expansion by colonization, the population density is essential; even if the
indigenous population from the occupied territories is practicing agricul-
ture the large number of newcomers becomes dominant, thus generating
a process of ‘democratization’, with the elites of the occupied minority
disappearing in time (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 378).
The second model of expansion called an ‘expansion system’ is based
on competition: The cultures in which this type of expansion could be
observed are more conformist and belong to the same linguistic group.
Within this system, culture–society competition springs between divided
political groups and constant in-fighting for political and military power.
Gradually, the military elites need more soldiers and start recruiting from
among the farmers, who request new lands as compensation. Over time,
the intense use of existing lands and population growth leads to the
expansion into new territories through military force. Kristinsson claims
that such processes could ostensibly explain the IE expansion problem.
Moreover, Kristinsson (2012, p. 417) argues (against the Kurgan
hypothesis) that the elite invasion and domination does not imply lan-
guage replacement as history demonstrates, with one example from
recent European history being the Norman elite in medieval England.
3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 19

Another argument that Kristinsson brings against the elite groups’ infu-
sion is that the warriors on horse carts are recorded around 2000 BCE,
and the IE dispersal begins around the fourth millennium.
Expansions of such large scale can generate language changes particu-
larly in the agricultural societies lacking a powerful organized state. Thus,
Kristinsson argues that the beginning of the IE expansion was the result
of a large growth of populations on the west side of the CT culture region,
which created the need for new land, determining the gradual spread
toward the eastern steppe. Additional consequence of the growth in pop-
ulation density was the intensifying of the internecine fights among tribes
shown in the increased number of arrowheads discovered around the CT
sites, which could be the result of competition among groups within the
society.
Another aspect brought into the discussion by the author is that
around the fourth millennium some important agricultural technology
advancements were made, including the plough and the wheel, the use of
oxen for traction vehicles, the presence of a new breed of sheep richer in
wool, together with an increase in farmers’ production and use of milk
and dairy in Europe and West Asia. All these innovations had a conse-
quence in terms of population growth, causing pressure within the CT
society that led to successive invasions eastwards beginning with 3500
BCE, culminating in the colonization of the steppe lands. As a result, the
CT culture started to break up, and Corded Ware cultures emerged in
northern Europe, characterized by a semi-nomadic lifestyle. The Yamna
culture emerged in the East adapting to the new conditions; but both
cultures retained identifiable characteristics of the CT culture from which
they descended. Kristinsson’s argument is that in the process of coloniza-
tion of the steppe regions the newcomers changed their way of life, adapt-
ing to the new environmental conditions. The big differences in the
quality of the CT ceramic and the ceramics of Corded Ware or Yamna
cultures are due, as the author believes, to the fact that the production of
ceramic was in general a women’s occupation, while population move-
ment was preponderantly male-oriented: Men supposedly formed new
families with local women that were not acquainted with the style and
quality of the CT ceramic culture.
20 A. R. Chelariu

Beginning circa 3100 BCE, elements of Yamna culture, including


probably speakers of IE western dialects, for example, ancient Greek and
Phrygian, could be observed moving along the Danube toward the
Balkans, inducing the Pre-Anatolian local population movements across
the Bosporus into Anatolia. Populations speaking Indo-European west-
ern dialects, pre-Greek and Phrygian from the Carpathian region may
have had contact with speakers of north IE dialects, Italic or Celtic, form-
ing a Schprachbund of linguistic influences. By 2800 BCE the CT culture
separated into two branches that gradually merged or disappeared into
other cultures. Interestingly, while the CT culture is known through its
settlements, the following cultures are visible by their graves.
The dispersal of IE language over the European continent is a unique
phenomenon. Kristinsson’s hypothesis is based on the idea that for a lan-
guage to become dominant a massive migration of democratized non-­
elitist populations of farmers using a common language for communication
was necessary: “Under such circumstances, an indigenous language can
be displaced even if the population didn’t change much as happened in
parts of the Roman Empire, in Ireland under British rule or in large parts
of Latin America under Spanish rule” (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 373).
These two hypotheses, the colonization and the expansion system
working in conjunction, could be applied to Dacian history: a country
conquered by the Roman centralized state in expansion, where the local
rural population did not suffer major changes as a consequence of the
war, but received an infusion of colonists during and after the Roman
military administration left. The prolonged intensive assault on the
Dacian territories, first by Emperor Domitian between 84 and 89 BCE,
followed by even a greater force organized by Trajan in two waves
(101–102 and 105–106 BCE), that resulted in a total occupaton of the
country, and the influx of a large number of colonists, attracted by the
richness of the newly conquered territory, famous for its gold and salt
mines. The Roman citizens and army veteran colonizers in search of
riches were speaking a lingua franca, known as Latina Vulgata, spoken all
over the territories of the empire already Romanized.
The economic and social relations established primarily through trans-
humance between the population from conquered Dacia and the people
speaking the same Romance language from the south and west of the
3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 21

Danube, favored the formation of a Schprachbund of a common vocabu-


lary specialized for the economic needs. Transhumance, as it survived for
centuries on Romanian lands, did not involve the movement of entire
families, but only bands of shepherds caring for large flocks of sheep. The
rest of the family stayed in their villages, leaving only when danger struck.
Getting back to the Kristinsson’s hypotheses, the Bulgaro-Slavic inva-
sion consisted of a nonelitist group of people, driven mainly by economic
not military reasons, which resulted in language imposition in the areas
with a weak organizational system, an area stretching from Poland to
Macedonia. It did not prevail, however, in regions with a more stable
social structure such as Dacia Romana.
The author’s hypothesis seems to offer a solution for the IE problem;
the possibility of Cucuteni-Tripolye culture as the homeland from where
the IE diffusion began: the first division to the west side—Cucuteni to
west and north of Europe, and Tripolye—toward the east, “similar to the
classic but depreciated centum-satem split” (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 423)
but probably predating by a millennium the actual formation of the two
branches. Most importantly, this hypothesis brings a new light to the
Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, hopefully initiating a more in-depth research
of this relatively less studied culture.
One note should be added here: in disagreement to Kristinsson’s opin-
ion, that the comparative mythology should not be regarded as a valid
source in the IE discussions, one should consider the several mythic pat-
terns observable in most of the IE cultures, such as the dragon fighter,
creation and foundation myths—primeval man, or the theft of fire.
Certainly, a great deal of caution should be applied, and if linguists could
agree on a common IE religious vocabulary then by default we could
accept the existence of a common religious ideology. The existence of a
number of mythical patterns in most of the IE cultures could very well be
considered as expression of a common mythology, detectable by the
researcher through the process of comparison and elimination.
Some of the main characteristics of the Cucuteni ceramics, besides the
beautiful graphic designs, are the presumptive symbols that are repre-
sented on the statuettes of the feminine character, the Great Goddess or
ancestress of the group as the reproductive organs represented by trian-
gles, ovals, circles; figurative animal suggesting bovine horns, deer, pig,
22 A. R. Chelariu

dog, snake, ram; or, the vegetation, trees, leaves, or the water as the wavy
lines, all designs so well detailed and analyzed by Marija Gimbutas (1982,
p. 169) in her monumental work on this subject.
Even though the symbolic designs offer information of the CT peo-
ples’ beliefs, all the efforts that the Romanian archaeologists made to
decipher in more detail messages regarding the socioeconomic structures
among the CT populations, encountered serious difficulties. The absence
of cemeteries among the thousands of villages raises many questions of
what they were doing with their dead. There are a few cases revealing
human bones deposited under house floors, but these are inconclusive.
The themes on the Cucuteni ceramics that may be considered mythical
expressions do not seem explicitly related to the IE culture, the most
identifiable being the two pair figures, believed to represent either a god-
dess with her consort, or a mother and daughter pair, which plausibly
could be linked to the Demeter-Persephone Greek myth, a relation that
may not be representative of IE mythology.
The importance of fire in the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, is exemplified
particularly by the practice of complete burning of settlements every
75–80 years, together with the ritual breaking of the ceramics and crema-
tion. Such practices could be considered sufficient grounds to speculate
on a hypothetical relation between these practices and the cult of light
and fire in the IE culture.
On the linguistic level, the DRom language retained a few essential IE
concepts related to fire; DRom n. scrum (with prothetic s- crum, frequent
in language) ‘singe, cinder, ash’ < PIE (IEW 571 *k(e)r-em-) *kr-em-
‘burn’, with cognates in Latin cremō, −üre ‘burn’, Umbr. Krematra, pl
*crematra ‘kind of vessel for frying meat’ (Orel, 1998: Albanian shk-
rumb, pl shkrumba ‘black ashes’; PAlb iš-krum). Another example is
DRom n. jar ‘glowing coal, ember’, Dacian Γέρμαζα (Germaza),
Γερμἰζερα (Germizera) < *gwhermós PIE MA 1. *g(e)ulo- ‘fire, glowing
coal’; 2. *gwher- ‘warm’, *gh’ermós adj. ‘hot’, with cognates in OIr gūal
‘coal’; NE coal; Alb zjarr|i ‘fire’, Alb zjarm, Arm Jě rm Jě r; Latv. gařme,
Gr. θερμὀς, ´fire, heat´; OCS goreti ‘burn’; or, DRom n. văpaie ‘flame,
shooting flame’ < PIE MA *u̯ep- ‘throw, throw out’, IEW 1149–1150
*uēp-: uǝp- (*suekʷ-) ‘to blow; to soar, with cognates in Skt vàpati ‘throw
out, scatter’, vàpra ‘earthen wall’, vaprā ‘fireplace’; Av vafra, OIran vafr,
3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 23

Iran bafr ‘snowdrift?’, OInd causative vāpayati ‘makes blow’; Lat vapor
(old vapōs) ‘vapor, heat’; Alb vapë ‘summer heat’; DRom n. dogoare
‘blaze, heat, summer heat’, v. dogori ‘to emanate heat, blaze’ < IEW
240–241 *dhegʷh- ‘to burn, *day *dhōgwho- ‘summer heat’, (*dhogʷh-
lo-lā) *dhegwh- ‘burn, be hot,’ with cognates in OIr doghaim ‘burn’, daig
‘flame’; Lat foveō ‘heat, cherish’; Lith degù ‘burn’; dāgas ‘summer heat’;
OCS žegǫ ‘burn’; Alb djeg ‘burn’, ndez ‘kindle’; Grk tephra ‘ash’; Av
dažati ‘burns’; Skt dagdhá-ḥ (= Lith. dègtas), Kaus. dăhayati; dăha-ḥ
‘blaze, heat’, niduăgha-ḥ ‘heat, summer’, Pers. dăɣ ‘burn brand’; Av.
daxša- m. ‘blaze” dáhati ‘burns’; Toch tsäk- ‘burn’
Yet, if the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture was the result of the IE group, it
will be a challenge to prove it, and, for that matter, an investigation of the
Romanian heritage could help resolve this impasse.

References
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; Myths and Cult
Images. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Kristinsson, A. (2012). Indo-European Expansion Cycles. Journal of Indo-European
Studies, 40(3–4), Fall/Winter. Institute for the Studies of Man.
Orel, V. (1998). Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden. Boston Kohl: Brill.
4
Some Recent Genetic
and Archaeological Conclusions

The advancement of genetic research opened up new perspectives into


the understanding of population migrations in ancient Europe. Studies
on this subject performed by renowned scientists such as David Reich
(2018), Nick Patterson, and Iosif Lazaridis from the Harvard laboratory
reached surprising conclusions regarding the population migrations in
the large Eurasian region. The people inhabiting this area were formed of
a large mixture of people genetically related to the ancestors of ancient
European hunter-gatherers, which is, in some measure, carried by the
present-day Europeans. The European ancestral hunter-gatherers were
preceded by migrations of farmers from the Near East circa 9000 years
ago, supporting the earlier theory proposed by Colin Renfrew (1987).
One millennium later, from 6000 bce, the Carpathians, the Balkans, and
Greece were the most culturally advanced European societies. The devel-
opment of these societies was associated with a new large migration wave,
probably between 4200 bce and 3900 bce, formed mainly of pastoralists
who probably spoke the Indo-European languages. This second wave
came from an area stretching between the north of the Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea, which archaeologists called the Yamnaya culture, or pit cul-
ture, of cattle herders equipped with horse-drawn wagons that crossed

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 25


A. R. Chelariu, Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_4
26 A. R. Chelariu

the Dniester which apparently annihilated the cultures in Eastern


Romania and Bulgaria. The DNA analysis conducted by Iosif Lazaridis
from Reich laboratory showed that the Yamnaya population comprised a
combination of lineages that did not exist previously in central Europe.
Traversed and populated by many migrations, settlements, and reset-
tlements, the European continent is veiled in mysteries that are yet to be
uncovered, among which include the Yamnaya culture from Eurasia.
Reich studies prove that Yamnaya invaders “were the missing ingredient,
carrying exactly the type of ancestry that needed to be added to early
European farmers and hunter-gatherers to produce populations with the
mixture of ancestries observed in Europe today” (Reich, 2018, p. 108),
supporting the previous theories of Marija Gimbutas (1982, p. 238). The
invaders, strongly comprised of the patriarchal Indo-European elite, were
almost exclusively R1b on the paternal side. However, they were absorbed
in high proportion by a non-Indo-European maternal to lineage; they
were using horses, oxen, and transportation on wheels, and produced
rudimentary ceramics. Reich finds through his studies of ancient DNA
that the Yamnaya culture was a male-dominant society. They buried their
dead under mounds called kurgans, mostly displaying male skeletons
placed at the center, with metal daggers and axes, many showing evidence
of violent injuries. Even though the Cucuteni-Tripolye DNA results are
missing, the decline of ‘Old Europe’, the relatively peaceful civilization
analyzed by Marija Gimbutas, coincided with the kurgan invasion.
David Reich, Nick Patterson, and Iosif Lazaridis, observed that data
from the Corded Ware burials revealed that a large part of their ancestry
related to the Yamnaya and concluded that “the makers of the Corded
Ware culture were, at least in a genetic sense, a westward extension of the
Yamnaya” (ibid., p. 110). The relations between Yamnaya and Corded
Ware complexes, a long-standing debate among researchers, can be con-
sidered settled now with the genetic data results. The two complexes had
many striking parallels, such as the construction of large burial mounds,
the intensive exploitation of horses and herding, combined with a strik-
ingly male-centered culture celebrating combat and violence, as reflected
by the large maces (or hammer-axes) buried in some graves. Even though
other researchers have stated that the Yamnaya culture did not expand to
the north of the Tisza River, Reich agrees that “only later, during the
4 Some Recent Genetic and Archaeological Conclusions 27

contemporaneous Corded Ware and Yamna migration waves were direct


contacts possibly between Yamna and Corded Ware herders on the upper
Dniester region (Anthony, 2007; Gimbutas, 1977)” (ibid., p. 110).
Furthermore, Reich reveals that aDNA analysis has shown traces of a
plague disease linked to the Eurasian steppe that could have determined
the Corded Ware culture expansion over vast areas in east-central Europe.
Such unprecedentedly empirically grounded revelations demonstrate the
importance of the advanced genetic technology for understanding human
history.
The thousands of years of the so-called Old Europe’s peaceful civiliza-
tion was disrupted, as Gimbutas (1982, p. 238) eloquently demonstrates,
by a male-centered society of elite dominance and warfare, as evidenced
now in Reich’s book with the spread of Y chromosomes of the Yamnaya
or their close relatives into Europe and India. The male-dominated Indo-­
European culture, revealed in the Greek, Norse, and Hindu mythologies,
indicative of the Indo-European class structure society, centered on a
male figure, god or hero, naturally arising as a reflex of the social behavior
of conquering men with social power overwhelming women from the
conquered group.
The genetic admixture that resulted from these migrations still charac-
terizes modern European populations, just as it is very likely that prede-
cessors of one or several Indo-European languages spoken in Europe
today, were carried by these migrants. (Kristiansen et al., 2020) From
these new studies the conclusions point to the populating by IE speakers
of a large area spreading from north-central Europe through the Pontic
steppe area to the Caspian Sea. The invasion of the Indo-Europeans into
southeastern Europe passing through the territories of present-day
Romania to the Balkans, Greece, and Anatolia, and into the western part
of Europe, changed the local civilizations, their social order and language.
These facts must be taken into account, in spite of all the difficulties in
proving a dialectal continuum, akin to that of the Daco-Romanian lan-
guage. Even though it may be hard to accept that a Proto-Indo-European
reconstructed root can be detected in certain lexeme without written
ancient documentation, the fact that neighboring languages, including
Albanian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, and Balto-Slavic, exhibit the same base
correspondences, the same correspondences must have been sensed to an
28 A. R. Chelariu

even greater extent by the speakers during economic and social contacts,
transhumance, ceramic and metal commerce, especially if we consider
that these contacts were at a time when the Indo-European languages
were less differentiated. As Kortlandt (2018, p. 228) notes, “the linguistic
evidence takes precedence over archaeological and genetic data, which
give no information about the languages spoken and can only support
the linguistic evidence”. Language studies together with comparative
analysis of the mythological traits may help us form a better picture of the
archaic societies of Southeast Europe.

References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The Horse the Wheel and the Language. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Gimbutas, M. (1977). The First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper
Age Europe. Washington DC: JIES, 5: 277–338. Institute for the Study of Man.
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; Myths and Cult
Images. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Kortlandt, F. (2018). The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages. # 322.
www.academia.edu
Kristiansen, K., et al. (2020). Kinship and Social Organization in Copper Age
Europe. Across-Disciplinary Analysis of Archaeology, DNA, Isotopes, and
Anthropology from Two Bell Beaker Cemeteries. Sjo¨gren K.-G., Olalde, I.,
Carver, S., Allentoft, M. E., Knowles, T., Kroonen, G., Kristiansen, K., et al.
PLoS ONE 15(11): e0241278. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.
pone.0241278
Reich, D. (2018). Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New
Science of the Human Past. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5
Daco-Romanian Language: An
Indo-European Branch

At this juncture, I should add a few lines addressing the history of the
language spoken by the population of today’s Romania, known in antiq-
uity as Dacian, which was classified by linguists as an Indo-European
language. Some researchers consider Dacian an independent language,
some a close relative of the Thracian language, some closer to Illyrian.
There are also those who claim that the Pre-Indo-European language/
languages, spoken in this area before the Indo-European arrival, should
be considered when analyzing the modern language, even though such
attempt would address a society dissipated into the deep darkness of times.
The first information on the Getae-Dacian and Thracian relation is
found in the Histories of the Greek writer Herodotus (4. 94) who states
that “the Getae are the bravest and the most law-abiding of all Thracians”.
The geographer Strabo places the Getae along the Danube on the moun-
tain side of Hercynian Forest:

As for the southern part of Germany beyond the Albis, the portion which
is just contiguous to that river is occupied by the Suevi; then immediately
adjoining this is the land of the Getae, which, though narrow at first,
stretching as it does along the Ister on its southern side and on the opposite

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 29


A. R. Chelariu, Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_5
30 A. R. Chelariu

side along the mountain-side of the Hercynian Forest (for the land of the
Getae also embraces a part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out
towards the north as far as the Tyregetae; but I cannot tell the precise
boundaries. (7.3.10; 7.3.12)

He also writes that the Dacians, Getae, and Thracians spoke the same
language, information reaffirmed in documents of Cassius Dio and Pliny
the Elder.
The Romanian linguist I. I. Russu (1967, p. 33) proceeded in his lin-
guistic research on the assumption that the Getae-Dacian language was
closely related to Thracian. This close relation between Dacian and
Thracian languages came under scrutiny from the Bulgarian linguist
Vladimir I. Georgiev (1960, p. 45) whose objections were made on the
ground of the Dacian name of 47 towns ending in δαυα of which 28 are
on the Romanian territory, and the Thracian form παρα of which 37 (41)
are found only in Thrace; these arguments show that Dacian and Thracian
may have been, at least in some respects, two different languages, part of
the large group of common Indo-European. Unfortunately, no Dacian
language inscriptions have been discovered, and the limited direct testi-
mony of written documents from these languages are mostly toponyms,
hydronyms, and proper names, coming to us through Greek and Latin
alphabets, which makes it quite difficult to reach definite conclusions.
These languages, whether dialectal formations or independent, were cer-
tainly part of an Indo-European linguistic group, situated in close prox-
imity from southern Pannonia region, to the Carpathian and Balkan
Mountains to the Black Sea. As a result of the geographic proximity, the
economic exchanges and pastoralism, the Dacian-Getae together with
Mysian, Thracian, Dardanian, Illyrian, Macedonian, and Greeks were a
large group in close contact, forming alliances or fighting among them-
selves, sharing specialized vocabulary for commercial exchanges, in the
end, becoming the main substrata that underline the Balkan peoples of
today. As Mallory and Adams state: “Some uniform proto-language may
have been spoken over a geographically compact area at the same time
when their neighbors had already differentiated into different language
groups…” (Mallory & Adams, 2006, p. 445).
5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 31

Following the Greek influence in the region, the Roman conquest of


the Balkan Peninsula resulted in a gradual Romanization of the popula-
tions. The economic relations between North and South of the Danube
must have been influenced by this linguistic development. When the
Dacian territory succumbed to the Roman army led by the Emperor
Trajan between 101 AD and 106 AD, the official Romanization process
began, facilitated by the geographic proximity and the permanent con-
tact with the already Romanized Southern population. The lack of infor-
mation regarding a state form of administration is compensated by
intense pastoral transhumance and economic activities the formerly
Dacian population practiced in the new conditions, developing a homog-
enized language. The economic relations between North and South of the
Danube, especially the pastoral movements, continued uninterrupted for
centuries, forming a key component in the process of language develop-
ment. Even today we find among the Greek and Slavic speakers South of
the Danube the word vlachos with the meaning ‘shepherd’ affirming the
influence of the Vlach shepherds that lived in the Balkans, part of the
large group of Latin speakers akin to the Romanians North of the
Danube. The language spoken by the habitants of this large area formed
the four Daco-Romance dialects: Aromanian, spoken in some areas of
Albania and Macedonia, Megleno-Romanian spoken in areas from
Macedonia and Greece, Istro-Romanian located on the peninsula of
Istria, and Daco-Romanian (DRom) in today’s Romania. The Vlacho-­
Romanian shepherds carried the practice of transhumance along the high
pastures of the entire Carpathian mountains, following archaic mountain
paths, spreading their technology and terminology from Northern
Yugoslavia, through Rhaetia, Hungary, to Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, all
to the Southern Poland, as demonstrated by John G. Nandris in a presen-
tation on pastoralism in Southern Europe (1999, p. 111). The author
brings to attention a North-South line of villages in the Czech region,
incorporating ‘Vlach’ in their names, such as Vlachovice, that indicates
settlements of Vlach shepherds from around the fifteenth century in
Moravia, and marking the probable western penetration of the Vlachs.
He also notes that in these Slavic speaking villages the counting system of
sheep is easily recognizable of Romanian (Latin) origin: doua ‘two’ , patru
‘four’: “Doua, patrzt, shase, opt, zeci …”, and continues with “deset-doua,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
[296]

Schimkewitsch, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. lix. 1895, p. 46.

[297]

Hatschek, Arb. Zool. Inst. Wien, iii. 1881, p. 79.

[298]

Fraipont, "Le Genre Polygordius," Fauna u. Flora des Golfes v.


Neapel, Monogr. xiv. 1887.

[299]

T. J. Parker, Lessons in Elementary Biology, London, 1891, p. 267,


gives a full account of the anatomy and development of
Polygordius.

[300]

"Die Capitelliden," Fauna u. Flora d. Golfes v. Neapel, Monogr. xvi.


1887, p. 350.

[301]

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., Art. "Mollusca," p. 652.

[302]

Benham, "The Post-Larval Stage of Arenicola," J. Mar. Biol. Assoc.


iii. (n.s.) 1893, p. 48.

[303]

The blood is colourless in Syllidae and Nephthydidae.

[304]

Ehlers states that some Eunicidae have green blood.

[305]

Benham, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxix. 1896, p. 1.


[306]

Schaeppi, Jena. Zeit. xxviii. 1894, p. 217.

[307]

Goodrich, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxiv. 1893, p. 387.

[308]

Benham, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxii. 1891, p. 325. See also Bourne
(nephridium of Polynoë), Tr. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), ii. 1883, p. 357;
Meyer, for nephridium of Terebellidae, Sabellidae, and Cirratulidae,
in Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887, p. 592.

[309]

It is worthy of note that in Aeolosoma alone amongst the


Oligochaeta does the brain lie in the prostomium in the adult.

[310]

Andrews, "The Eyes of Polychaetes," J. Morph. vii. 1892, p. 169.

[311]

Wistinghausen, "Entwick. v. N. dumerilii," Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, x.


1891, p. 41.

[312]

This is a modification of the classification proposed by me at the


meeting of the British Association at Oxford, 1894 (see Report, p.
696). For further characteristics of these Orders and sub-Orders
see below Chap. XII. Ehlers, "Die Borstenwürmer," 1864, gives a
historical survey of the group, and enumerates the earlier
classifications.

[313]

In Coabangia (see p. 284) the anus is near the anterior end, on the
ventral surface.
[314]

It is doubtful whether these organs are palps or only lateral lips.

[315]

Pruvot traced the nerve supply to these organs, and thus


established their homology. Arch. d. Zool. Expér. (ser. 2) iii. 1885,
p. 211.

[316]

Meyer, "Stud. ub. d. Körperbau der Anneliden," Mt. Zool. Stat.


Neapel, vii. 1887, p. 592; viii. 1888, p. 462. In this work a great
number of important and interesting anatomical facts are recorded
with respect to the Terebelliformia and Sabelliformia, as well as
certain details as to the structure and development of the
nephridia.

[317]

In some of the members of this family paired lateral tentacles


appear to exist.

[318]

It is possible that some of these may be peristomial.

[319]

Individual cases in which chaetae are present have been


recorded.

[320]

Meyer, loc. cit.

[321]

Haswell, P. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, vii. 1883, p. 251.

[322]
Eisig, "Die Capitelliden," Fauna u. Flora G. v. Neapel, Monogr. xvi.
1887, p. 331.

[323]

Compare with this the muscular organ of Dinophilus, p. 243,


Protodrilus, and a similar structure which occurs in Terebellids.

[324]

Korschelt, "Über Ophryotrocha puerilis," Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. lv.


1893, p. 224.

[325]

Eisig, Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, ii. 1881, p. 255.

[326]

They are specially large also in the Typhloscolecidae; while


Racovitza (Ann. Mag. N. H. (ser. 6), xv. 1895, p. 279) has recently
suggested that the caruncle of Amphinomidae belongs to the
category of nuchal organs, and compares it with the ciliated
lappets of Pterosyllis.

[327]

Ehlers, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. liii. 1892, p. 217.

[328]

See Claparède and Metschnikoff, "Beit. zur Kennt. d. Entwick der


Chaetopoden," Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. xix. 1869, p. 163; and
Fewkes, "On the Development of certain Worm Larvae," Bulletin
Mus. Harvard, xi. 1883, p. 167.

[329]

For an account of the anatomy and development of a


Trochosphere, see Hatschek, on Eupomatus, in Arbeit. Zool. Inst.
Wien, vi. 1885. Also Meyer, Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, viii. 1888, p.
462; and for Polynoid larva see Häcker, Zool. Jahrb. Abth. Anat.
viii. 1895, p. 245.

[330]

See Meyer (ref. on p. 261).

[331]

Many of the Polynoids are sexually dimorphic.

[332]

Claparède, "Annélides Chétopodes du Golfe de Naples,"


Supplement, 1870; and Wistinghausen, Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, x.
1891, p. 41.

[333]

Claparède used the term "epigamous" for this phase; Ehlers


employed the term "epitokous," whilst he called the "Nereid" phase
"atokous," under the impression that the worm did not become
mature in this condition.

[334]

Malaquin gives a detailed account of the asexual reproduction in


Syllidae in Recherches sur les Syllidiens, Lille, 1893, and in Revue
Biol. d. Nord de la France, iii. 1891. See also St. Joseph, "Les
annelides polychétes des côtes de Dinard," Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool.
(7th ser.) i. 1886, p. 134.

[335]

Alex. Agassiz, Boston J. Nat. Hist. vii. 1863, p. 384.

[336]

Huxley, Edinb. New Philosoph. Journ. 1855, i. p. 113.

[337]
"Challenger" Reports, vol. xii. 1885, "Polychaeta," p. 198; and Oka,
Zoolog. Centralbl. ii. 1895, p. 591.

[338]

Two new heads have been observed in Typosyllis variegata by


Langerhans, and two new tails in another Syllis.

[339]

Dalyell, The Powers of the Creator revealed, etc., vol. ii. 1853, p.
225 et seq.

[340]

von Kennel, Arb. Zool. Instit. Würzburg, vi. 1883, p. 259.

[341]

Leidy, Proc. Acad. Nat. Hist. Philadelphia, 1883, p. 204.

[342]

Giard, C. R. Soc. Biol. v. 1893, p. 473.

[343]

See M‘Intosh, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 4) ii. 1868, p. 276.

[344]

Lankester has suggested that a strong acid is secreted for the


purpose, see Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 4) i. 1868, p. 233.

[345]

M‘Intosh, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (ser. 6) xiii. 1894, p. 1.

[346]

Dalyell, The Powers of the Creator revealed, ii. 1853, p. 217.

[347]
Watson, Journ. R. Mic. Soc. 1890, p. 685; see also Dalyell, loc. cit.
ii. p. 195.

[348]

Schmiedeberg, Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, iii. 1882, p. 373.

[349]

For pelagic forms, see Camille Viguier, Arch. de Zool. Expér. (ser.
2) iv. 1886, p. 347; also Reibisch, Die pelag. Phyllodociden u.
Typhloscoleciden d. Plankton Exped. 1895.

[350]

Lankester, Journ. Anat. and Physiol. 1868, p. 114; and 1870, p.


119; see also MacMunn, "On the Chromatology of the Blood in
some Invertebrates," Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxv. 1885, p. 469.

[351]

For coloured pictures of worms consult Schmarda, "Neue


wirbellose Thiere," 2nd part, 1861; Milne Edwards in Cuvier's
"Règne Animal" (Ed. Disciples de Cuvier).

[352]

Semper, Animal Life, "Internat. Sci. Series," 1881, p. 401.

[353]

The experiments were made by Mr. Garstang at the Laboratory of


the Marine Biological Association, and are recorded by Poulton in
The Colours of Animals, "Internat. Sci. Series," 1890, p. 201.

[354]

Panceri, Atti Acad. Sci. Napoli, vii. 1875.

[355]

M‘Intosh, H.M.S. "Challenger" Reports, "Polychaeta," vol. xii. p. ix.


[356]

For an account of these worms see M‘Intosh, loc. cit. p. 257.

[357]

For a list of parasitic Polychaetes see St. Joseph, Ann. Sci. Nat.
(ser. 7) v. 1888, p. 141.

[358]

Semper, loc. cit. p. 340.

[359]

See "Challenger Reports," and St. Joseph, loc. cit.

[360]

"Challenger" Reports, loc. cit. p. xxx.

[361]

See Hornell, Fauna of Liverpool Bay, Report III. 1892, p. 126.

[362]

Zittel, Handbuch d. Palaeontologic (Palaeozoologie), i. 1876-80, p.


562.

[363]

Ehlers, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. xviii. 1868, p. 241.

[364]

The Chaetopteridae may have to be placed elsewhere in the


system, as they are peculiarly modified, and present features
recalling the Cryptocephala, from which it is possible they have
descended.

[365]
Meyer (Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887, p. 669, note) suggests
that the tentacular filaments of Cirratulids are really prostomial, but
have shifted back on to the peristomium, or even farther.

[366]

It is probable that the genital ducts of Sternaspis and


Chlorhaemids are modified nephridia.

[367]

The character of head and parapodium in each family will be


gathered from the figures accompanying the general description in
Chap. X., so that detailed description is unnecessary. In all cases
the chaetae form valuable specific characters.

The examples of the various families are British, unless the


opposite is expressly stated; but most of them are not confined to
our shores, and the foreign localities are usually given. No attempt
is made to enumerate all the British species.

The following books may be found useful for identifying the


worms:—

Claparède, Recherches anat. sur les Annélides observées dans les


Hebrides, 1861; Annélides Chétopodes du golfe de Naples, 1868, and
Suppl., 1870.
Cunningham and Ramage, "Polychaeta Sedentaria of the Firth of Forth,"
Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, xxxiii. 1888, p. 635.
Ehlers, Die Borstenwürmer, 1868.
Johnston, "British Museum Catalogue of Non-Parasitical Worms," 1865.
M‘Intosh, "British Annelida," Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. 1877, p. 371; "Invert.
Marine Fauna of St. Andrews; Annelida," Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) xiv. 1874,
p. 144.
Malmgren, "Nordiska Hafs-Annulater," Öfversigt af K. Vet.-Akad.
Förhandlingar, 1865, pp. 51, 181, 355; and "Annulata Polychaeta," ibid.
1867, p. 127.
St. Joseph, "Les Annélides Polychétes des côtes de Dinard," Ann. Sci. Nat.
(Zool.) (7) vol. i. 1886, p. 127; v. 1888, p. 141; xvii. 1894, p. 1; xx. 1895, p.
185.

[368]

Malaquin, Recherches sur les Syllidiens, 1893; for structure of the


gizzard, see also Haswell, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxvi. 1886, p. 471;
and xxx. 1889, p. 31.

[369]

See M‘Intosh's Memoirs, loc. cit.

[370]

Herein are included the various genera formed by Kinberg,


Malmgren, and others.

[371]

It appears to be the same as P. grubiana Clap.

[372]

Marenzeller has shown that Johnston's P. scolopendrina is not


identical with that of Savigny, and suggests the above name for it.

[373]

F. Buchanan, "Report on Polychaetes, Part I." Sci. Proc. Roy.


Dublin Soc. vii. (n.s.) 1893, p. 169.

[374]

Polyodontes Ran. deserves mention as being a large, rare form


with peculiar pedal gland; cf. Eisig (ref. on p. 268), p. 324; and
Buchanan, Quart. J. Micr. Sc. xxxv. 1894, p. 433.

[375]

Many authorities regard this species as synonymous with


Savigny's P. laminosa.
[376]

According to a verbal communication from Mr. J. Hornell of Jersey,


they belong to P. maculata Müll., while Mr. Garstang believes them
to belong to Eulalia viridis.

[377]

These segmentally-arranged brown spots may perhaps be


photogenic.

[378]

Greef, Acta Ac. German., xxxix. 1877.

[379]

Greef, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. xlii. 1885, p. 432.

[380]

Buchanan, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxv. 1894, p. 445.

[381]

Buchanan, Sci. Proc. R. Dublin Soc. viii. (n.s.) 1893, p. 169.

[382]

Reibisch, Phyllodociden u. Typhloscoleciden d. Plankton Exped.


1895.

[383]

The British species is usually referred to as C. insignis Baird, but


Joyeux Laffuie (Arch. Zool. Exp. (ser. 2) viii. 1890, p. 244) has
shown that there is only one European species. It is possible that
there is a closer affinity with the Sabelliformia than is at present
supposed.

[384]

Compare Sternaspis, p. 336.


[385]

For literature, see Benham, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxix. part 1, 1896,
p. 1.

[386]

F. Buchanan, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxi. 1890, p. 175.

[387]

In some genera there are no gills, e.g. Leaena.

[388]

These characters are not necessarily generic.

[389]

Eisig, "Die Capitelliden," Fauna u. Flora G. v. Neapel, Monogr. xvi.


1887.

[390]

Ed. Meyer., Arch. mikr. Anat. xxi. 1882, p. 769.

[391]

Vejdovsky, Denk. Akad. Wien, xliii. 1882, part 2, p. 33; and


Rietsch, Ann. Sci. Nat. (Zool.) ser. 6, xiii. 1882, art. 5.

[392]

For anatomy see Meyer, Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887.

[393]

Andrews, Journ. Morph. v. 1891, p. 271.

[394]

A. G. Bourne, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxiii. 1883, p. 168.

[395]
Closely allied is Manayunkia Leidy, which occurs in fresh-water
lakes of America. Another fresh-water genus is Coabangia Giard,
which perhaps deserves the creation of a special family. The anus
is ventral and anterior. The chaetae are peculiarly arranged, dorsal
uncini being present only on four segments. The first body
segment carries a ventral bundle of five great "palmate" chaetae.

[396]

For the anatomy see Meyer, Mt. Stat. Neapel, vii. 1887; see also
above, p. 306.

[397]

von Graff, "Myzostomida," "Challenger" Reports, part 27, vol. x.


1884; and "Supplement," part 61, vol. xx. 1887.

[398]

Marenzeller, Anz. Akad. Wien, xxxii. p. 192.

[399]

Mt. Zool. Stat. Neapel, xii. 1896, p. 227; where, too, see literature.

[400]

Beard, Mt. Zool. St. Neap. v. 1884, p. 544.

[401]

Quart. J. Micr. Sci. (n.s.) vol. iv. 1864, p. 258; and v. pp. 7, 99.

[402]

Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. xix. 1869, p. 563.

[403]

De Lumbrici terrestris Historia naturali, Brussels, 1829.

[404]
Naturg. ein. Wurm-Arten d. süssen u. salzigen Wasser,
Copenhagen, 1771.

[405]

Trans. Roy. Soc. Victoria, vol. i. 1888, p. 1.

[406]

Phil. Trans. clxxxvi. 1895, A, p. 383.

[407]

Mém. cour. Ac. Belg. lii. 1890-93.

[408]

Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxi. 1890, p. 83.

[409]

Beddard, Ibid. xxxiii. 1892, p. 325.

[410]

Beddard, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xiii. 1894, p. 205.

[411]

Mém. Soc. Zool. France, iii. 1890, p. 223.

[412]

Vegetable Mould and Earthworms, London, 1881.

[413]

Zool. Anz. xi. 1888, p. 72.

[414]

See Fletcher, P. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2) iii. 1889, p. 1542.


[415]

In Sitzungs-Ber. Böhm. Ges. 1889, p. 183.

[416]

See Dr. Rosa in Ann. Hofmus. Wien, vi. 1891, p. 379.

[417]

Entwickelungsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Prag, Heft i. 1888,


p. 33.

[418]

See Kleinenberg, Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xix., 1879, p. 206.

[419]

Both Col. Feilden and Mr. Trevor-Battye found specimens in


Kolguiev.

[420]

Neue wirbellose Thiere, Leipzig, ii. 1861, p. 11.

[421]

Kew Bull. Misc. Information, No. 46, 1890.

[422]

Rev. Biol. Nord France, i. 1889, p. 197.

[423]

SB. Ges. naturf. Berlin, 1893, p. 19.

[424]

System u. Morph. d. Oligochaeten, Prag, 1884.

[425]
See my text-book of Zoogeography (Cambridge, 1895) for fuller
treatment.

[426]

Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) ix. 1892, p. 12.

[427]

Darwin, Vegetable Mould and Earthworms, p. 121.

[428]

"An Attempt to classify Earthworms," Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxi.


1890, p. 201.

[429]

Oxford, 1895.

[430]

See especially Vejdovsky, Syst. u. Morph. Olig. Prag, 1884.

[431]

Vejdovsky, Monographie der Enchytraeiden, Prag, 1879.


Michaelsen, "Synopsis der Enchytraiden," Abh. Ver. Hamburg, xi.
1889, p. 1.

[432]

J. P. Moore, "The Anatomy of Bdellodrilus," J. Morphol. x. 1895, p.


497.

[433]

Beddard, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. xxxv. 1890, p. 629, and xxxvi.
1892, p. 1.

[434]
A. G. Bourne, "On the Naidiform Oligochaeta," Quart. J. Micr. Sci.
xxxii. 1891, p. 335.

[435]

F. E. Beddard, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. xxxvi. 1892, p. 273.

[436]

Vejdovsky, System u. Morph. d. Oligochaeten, Prag, 1884.

[437]

"Anatomical Notes on Sutroa," Zoe. ii. 1892, p. 321.

[438]

"Pacific Coast Oligochaeta," Mem. California Acad. Sci. vol. ii.

[439]

Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxxvi. 1894, p. 307.

[440]

See Spencer, Proc. Roy. Soc. Vict. v. 1893, and Fletcher, P. Linn.
Soc. N.S.W. 1886-1888, for Australian forms; Rosa, Ann. Mus. civ.
Genova, vi. 1886, x. 1890, and xii. 1892, for Oriental species, etc.

[441]

See Fletcher and Spencer, already quoted, for Australian species.

[442]

Eisen, "Anat. Studies on Ocnerodrilus," Proc. Calif. Acad. (2) iii.


1892, p. 228.

[443]

Beddard, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) x. 1892, p. 74.

[444]
Beddard, P. Z. S. 1885 and 1895, for Antarctic Acanthodrilids;
Michaelsen, in Jahrb. Hamburg. Anst. 1888-95, for Benhamia.

[445]

For a general account of the Eudrilidae, see my Monograph of the


Order Oligochaeta, Oxford, 1895.

[446]

Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris, viii. 1872, p. 5.

[447]

The scattered literature of this family is due to Benham,


Michaelsen, Perrier, Rosa, and others.

[448]

Rosa, "Revisione dei Lumbricidae," Mem. Acc. Torino (2), xliii.


1893, p. 399; also the Rev. H. Friend's numerous and useful
papers, and especially "A New Species of Earthworms," Proc. Roy.
Irish Ac. (3) ii. 1891-93, p. 402; and "The Earthworms of Ireland,"
Irish Nat. v. 1896, p. 69, etc.

[449]

In the tables the figures refer to the segments of the body.


Opposite the name of each species are two sets of lines; the upper
series indicate the segments occupied by the clitellum; the lower
series those occupied by the tubercula pubertatis. The dots
indicate the occasional extension of the clitellum or of the
tubercula.

[450]

"Annelés," vol. iii. 1889-90, p. 477, in the Suites à Buffon.

[451]

See v. Kennel, Zool. Jahrb. ii. 1887, p. 37.


[452]

Nouvelle Monographie des Sangsues médicinales. Paris, 1857.

[453]

Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxvi. 1886, p. 317.

[454]

See Grube, "Annulaten" of Middendorff's Sibirische Reise,


Zoology, 1851, p. 20; and Kowalevsky, Bull. Ac. St. Petersb. v.
June 1896.

[455]

See ref. on p. 395.

[456]

Asajiro Oka, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. lviii. 1894, p. 79.

[457]

See Bürger, quoted on p. 403.

[458]

Loc. cit.

[459]

Quart. J. Micr. Sci. xxiv. 1884, p. 419; see also ibid. xxxiv. 1893, p.
545, which is mainly a criticism of Bolsius' additions to the very
considerable literature upon the Leech nephridium.

[460]

"Spermatophores as a Means of Hypodermic Impregnation," J.


Morphol. iv. 1891, p. 361.

[461]
Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. lviii. 1894, p. 440; and Zool. Jahrb. Anat. iv.
1891, p. 697.

[462]

"Annelés," vol. iii. 1889-90, p. 493, in the Suites à Buffon.

[463]

Whitman quotes with regretful approval (Proc. Americ. Acad. xx.


1884-85, p. 76) Sir J. Dalyell's remark, "It does not appear that the
history of the leech has advanced in proportion to the number of
literati who have rendered it the subject of discussion," and adds
on his own account the following severe indictment of his
predecessors: "As a considerable share of the work done in this
direction is purely systematic, it is somewhat surprising that not a
single description of any Hirudo has been given with sufficient
accuracy and completeness for a close comparison of even its
more important external characters with those of other species."

[464]

"Hirudinées de l'Italie," etc., Boll. Mus. Zool. Torino, vol. ix. 1894,
No. 192. See also Apathy, "Süsswasser-Hirudineen," Zool. Jahrb.
Syst. iii. 1888, p. 725.

[465]

Zeitschr. f. die gesammt. Naturwiss. vi. 1872, p. 422.

[466]

But Pennant in his British Zoology has referred to a leech which is


even larger. Upon the huge Basking shark (Selache) the fishermen
sometimes observe a leech, which invariably drops off when the
fish is brought to the surface, "of a reddish colour and about 2 feet
in length"; this may be a Pontobdella.

[467]

Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xii. 1893, p. 75.

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